Seismic fragilities for nuclear power plant risk studies

A Comparative Study of Seismic Fragility Estimates Using Different Numerical Methods

“…Later, a detailed procedure for the estimation of fragility curves based on the selection of components, identification of failure modes and evaluation of uncertainties using factors of safety was given by Kennedy and Ravindra [2]. The fragility of a structure in this method is estimated using a lognormal model:…”

“…The pioneering works in the area of seismic fragility analysis of nuclear structures were initiated in the late 1970s and continued till the mid-1980s [1,2]. The methodologies proposed during this period relied on sound probabilistic analyses and quite significantly on engineering judgement.…”

“…Shinouzuka et al [3] focussed on the statistical analysis of fragility data for bridges and Ellingwood et al [4] focussed on the fragility analysis of building structures using incremental dynamic analysis. The primary objective of this paper is to perform a comparison of these two methods of fragility analysis, along with the 'conventional' method mentioned earlier [2], through the test case of the seismic fragility analysis of the primary containment dome of a typical Indian PHWR.…”

Fragility Analysis of Concrete Gravity Dams

“…The fragility concept has found widespread usage in the nuclear power industry, where it has been used in seismic probabilistic safety and/or margin assessments of safety-related plant systems (Kennedy and Ravindra, 1984, Ellingwood, 1990, 1994a, 1994b). These fragilities have been determined in a variety of ways: simple heuristics, scaling upward from design calculations, and (rarely) stochastic nonlinear finite element analysis.…”

Seismic Fragility Analysis of a Nuclear Primary Containment Structure

“…The pioneering work on the development of a systematic methodology for seismic fragility analysis of a nuclear power plant and its components was conducted by Kennedy et al [2]. This method was modified later to a more systematic approach by Kennedy and Ravindra [3]. They obtained the fragility of a structure, using a lognormal model, as…”